Potential Midfield Sleepers For Your Preseason Watchlist

With younger players gaining more exposure, role changes and experienced campaigners on the horizon, the sleeper midfield pool for your 2025 AFL Fantasy Draft is looking more promising than ever.

Let’s explore the midfielders who are already standing out as potential sleepers heading into 2025.

Jack Bowes

2024 Games: 20

2024 Average: 79

In his first season at Geelong, Jack Bowes went at an average of 61. In his second season at Geelong, Jack Bowes went at an average of 79. In his third season at Geelong, we will have to wait and see.

What we do know is that he went at an average of 94 over the last eight games (not including his one sub effected scored) to finish the 2024 regular season.

With Bailey Smith, Guthrie and Bruhn likely to make the path to success difficult for Bowes, we still want to put him on the radar at this point of the preseason as any sign that he is well entrenched in the midfield rotation ahead of some of those listed players makes him a very interesting prospect for your 2025 squad.

Ed Langdon

2024 Games: 22

2024 Average: 79

Despite it not looking great there for awhile at Melbourne, they were able to keep all their important midfield pieces. One of those pieces, that was never going anywhere but no one is talking about right now is Ed Langdon.

Unlike other potential sleepers, Langdon has three seasons of 85+ under his belt. Unlike many other options being drafted with similar averages to Langdon, Langdon was going at an average of 88 over the last eight games including one score of 140.

The role itself didn’t change for Langdon but having Windsor not playing the later rounds on the wing definitely helped. If Windsor gets upgraded to any other type of role and Langdon is allowed to roam as the main wing option in transition for Melbourne he becomes severely undervalued for what his ADP will be.

Massimo D’Ambrosio

2024 Games: 22

2024 Average: 78

There are few players who you would take in your team for their name alone but Massimo is one of those very few.

Putting that aside, the guys got some football ability too and is only 21 years of age. After being dropped early in the year, Massimo got the kick up the backside he needed and he actually went at an average of 90 from round 10 onwards (taking out an injury effected game in round 18).

Next year, we should see natural improvement due to age and natural improvement due to being in an improving team. We’re confident that his scores in the second half of the season are more reflective of the player he will be in 2025.  

We would only need to see a serious role change in the preseason to not keep Massimo on the sleeper radar.

Jase Burgoyne

2024 Games: 20

2024 Average: 77

Burgoyne comes from a storied football family and has the pedigree to match. His versatility allows him to play both as a rebounding half-back or athletic wingman, which should start to translate to consistent fantasy points in 2025.

As described in the potential defender sleeper article, someone has to get the points in the reshaped Port Adelaide backline so if not Farrell or Burton than Burgoyne is another likely candidate. In games without Houston at the tail end of 2024, Burgoyne looked lively playing a mix of half back and wing. He scored 83, 62, 104 and 84 without Houston there.

The good news about Burgoyne is that even before Houston went down, his role and confidence were growing in the tail end of the season. In fact, in the last 9 games of the season he went at an average of 88. This shows he will have a great floor in 2025.  

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on his role during practice matches to gauge his fantasy potential.

Sam Banks

2024 Games: 15

2024 Average: 43

There are one of two things that are likely to happen by the end of the preseason.

1)      Sam Banks is on everyone’s watchlist so is no longer a sleeper.

2)      Sam Banks should never have been on this list to begin with.

Only time will tell but there are rumours coming out from track watchers that he is practicing off half back. In an interview with the media early in to preseason, Banks said himself that he will play more off half back this year. If this turns out to be true, with the departure of Rioli, some people will start to get pretty excited.

If this turns out to not be true, Sam Banks is not someone you should be looking at drafting.

Until we work out whether it’s true or not, this is a good place to start to put Sam Banks on your radars to keep an eye out for during training reports or preseason matches.

Midfielder Sleepers in our 2025 Rankings

In summary, these midfielders might not be the first names that come to mind when you think of your draft picks, but their potential to offer incredible value makes them players worth tracking closely this preseason. Pinpointing and locking in these sleepers early could be the difference between a solid and a standout AFL Fantasy season.

If keeping up with all the preseason updates feels overwhelming, let us take care of the hard work for you at AFL Draft Pros.

As new information becomes available, we’ll be updating our rankings for these sleepers and more in our 2025 Draft Ranking Spreadsheet.

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